Abstract
Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is one of the most damaging cereal diseases in semi-arid regions worldwide. The genetics of FCR resistance in the bread wheat (Triticum eastivum L.) variety EGA Wylie, the most resistant commercial variety available, was studied by QTL mapping. Three populations of recombinant inbred lines were developed with this elite variety as the resistant parent. Four QTL conferring FCR resistance were detected and resistance alleles of all of them were derived from the resistant parent EGA Wylie. One of these loci was located on the short arm of chromosome 5D (designated as Qcrs.cpi-5D). This QTL explains up to 31.1% of the phenotypic variance with an LOD value of 9.6. The second locus was located on the long arm of chromosome 2D (designated as Qcrs.cpi-2D) and explained up to 20.2% of the phenotypic variance with an LOD value of 4.5. Significant effects of both Qcrs.cpi-5D and Qcrs.cpi-2D were detected in each of the three populations assessed. Another two QTL (designated as Qcrs.cpi-4B.1 and Qcrs.cpi-4B.2, respectively) were located on the short arm of chromosome 4B. These two QTL explained up to 16.9% and 18.8% of phenotypic variance, respectively. However, significant effects of Qcrs.cpi-4B.1 and Qcrs.cpi-4B.2 were not detected when the effects of plant height was accounted for by covariance analysis. The elite characteristics of this commercial variety should facilitate the incorporation of the resistance loci it contains into breeding programs.
Highlights
Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is a chronic and serious disease in cereal production in Australia
To further improve the values of this variety in FCR breeding programs, we studied the genetics of its FCR resistance
The average FCR ratings for the three trials conducted in this study were similar (53.96 for FCR-01, 51.67 for FCR-02, and for FCR-03), the range of ratings for individual lines was wider in FCR-03 (Table 1)
Summary
Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is a chronic and serious disease in cereal production in Australia. It has become more prevalent in many parts of the semiarid regions worldwide in recent years, due most likely to the high intensity of cereal in cropping system combined with the wide adoption of minimum tillage for moisture conservation [1]. FCR causes an estimated annual yield loss of $79 million Australia dollars in wheat production in Australia [3]. A study in the Pacific Northwest in USA showed that FCR could reduce yields of winter wheat varieties by up to 35% [4]. FCR infected plants may produce mycotoxins which can be harmful to humans and livestock when present in food or feed [5]
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